Compassionate Cuisine: 125 Plant-Based Recipes from Our Vegan Kitchen
“This vegan cookbook, Compassionate Cuisine, is not just about cooking and food. It is about saving the lives of animals. This cookbook examines the animal rights movement and their endeavors to save the lives of abused animals while providing delicious vegan recipes for the reader and the cook.”
Imagine living beneath the deep blue sky surrounded by 148 acres of luscious fields of greenery. Visualize a farm whose focus is to save and care for farm animals. Imagine sitting among turkeys or petting a sheep who approaches for a caress. The chicken, cow, or sheep are looking to humans for a connection.
Why would someplace like this exist? This is the setting for the Catskill Animal Sanctuary, and they are passionate about their mission to save the horses that have been blinded, the cows that have been branded, and other animals that have been left on the side of the road to fend for themselves: abused, kicked, suffering from malnutrition, and treated horrifically.
In Compassionate Cuisine the reader becomes versed in the meaning of compassion. The definition of compassion is the same if one is talking about compassion toward a person or an animal. A compassionate person feels the pain of others, and that includes the pain that animals experience. One might wonder how compassion and empathy can be felt for a cow, a horse, a pig, or a chicken. “Empathy is the ability to not only understand another’s feelings but also to become one with (an individual’s) distress . . . to put yourself in their shoes and imagine what they’re going through in that situation.”
Take a leap of faith for a moment and accept the fact that animals are sentient beings. They feel, they understand what is happening to them, they are aware and recognize the quality of their lives.
This vegan cookbook, Compassionate Cuisine, is not just about cooking and food. It is about saving the lives of animals. This cookbook examines the animal rights movement and their endeavors to save the lives of abused animals while providing delicious vegan recipes for the reader and the cook.
The story of these abused animals takes place at Catskill Animal Sanctuary in New York State. Their mission is to save animals from suffering. It is here that visitors learn how their diets and ways of eating have consequences for animals, for their own health, and for the planet. This cookbook teaches the reader how to cook without harming the animals who share our world.
The Compassionate Cuisine Cookbook written by Linda Soper-Kolton and Sara Boan reflects not only on these animals but how to set up one’s kitchen to cook and prepare delicious food without meat. This is a book about love! “It’s the main ingredient in every recipe we develop.” The animals, as well as the visitors to the sanctuary, eat wholesome and nutritious food.
The goal of cooking the authors’ recipes is to create food that tastes good and is satisfying. Their cuisine is delectable, delicious, and appealing. One can imagine the odors emerging from the kitchen ovens as the two chefs labor with love and devotion.
In between each chapter is a story about the sanctuary. Each story brings a smile as one envisions the pigs squealing in delight when their breakfast arrives.
The food and recipe chapters are set forth as most cookbooks, beginning with breakfasts and morning meals. Some of the best breakfast recipes are found here: banana bread, nutty breakfast bars, superfood smoothie bowls, and chunky monkey pancakes. The savory breakfast options are noteworthy.
The photographs include many examples of the chefs’ creations, but the memorable pictures are those of the animals. The horse, the cow, and the pig reflect the most extraordinarily well-cared–for animals.
The chapter on soups and stews is perfect as autumn arrives. The stovetop white bean cassoulet is easy to prepare and fills the kitchen with fragrant odors emanating from the stove top.
There is a chapter on sides and salads with many original and creative recipes. Eventually the reader arrives at the chapter entitled main meals. A favorite is the compassionate “crab” cakes with remoulade sauce which uses hearts of palm to replace the crab. One will never doubt that these crab cakes are not equal in taste to the original recipe.
The final chapter on sweets and treats provides some of the most delectable choices: key lime pie made with avocado, a sweet potato cranberry crisp perfect for a Thanksgiving dessert. An easy to bake almond raspberry cake that is equally succulent. Deep, dark vegan brownies will satisfy the chocoholic in all of us.
Most of the recipes are easy to prepare. This book has been written with loving care in honor of the many animal lives that have been saved. The authors are grateful for the opportunity to share their story with the world.
“Don’t judge or punish. Reward yourself for the important changes you make and for each meal that aligns with your goals.”